This game is a mix of chess variant with collectable card game elements. I draw my inspiration from Navia Dratp, Knightmare Chess and Magic: The Gathering. It is made for 1 vs 1 or 2 vs 2 play.
Objective of the game is to capture the opponent's king. At the beginning of each player's turn, he draws 1 card. During his turn, the player has to make a move on one of his pieces. Before or after the Move, he can summon piece, promote piece or play a card by paying the cost. Costs are paid by discarding cards.
There are 4 colors, each associated with a race. Orc is Red, Undead is Black, Blue is Human and Green is Elf. Each has their own unique abilities to influence the game play. Orc specializes in piece promotion and movement, Undead in graveyard manipulation and piece control, Human in piece position and board manipulation, and Elf in card manipulation.
I made a 1st version and playtested it myself, and found it requires more thinking during play than chess or card game alone.
Any comments on the idea of mixing collectable card game with chess? Hope to get some comments or suggestions here.
Thanks for the replies!
schmanthony - Yes, there seems to be so many Chess variants. But I love Chess, especially Chinese Chess (Xiangqi), so that is one reason why I started out to create this game. I hope the introduction of fairy pieces will make it less like standard international or chiness chess, which may be boring since everyone is familar with the standard piece moves. I understand people may be bored with Chess variants, but I hope to make one that is more interesting or different in a way.
I see some shortcomings in Navia Dratp and Knightmare Chess, which I try to correct in this game. For Navia Dratp, firstly, the promoted pieces has abilities which are not apparent at all. New players, and especially the opponent, may have to keep referring to the cards to see what the promoted abilities are. It drags the game. Secondly, some pieces are more powerful than others, but there is no system to even this out for both players. The player with the more powerful pieces (perhaps with more money to buy or trade for them, since its a collectable game) has the advantage. Thirdly, it's a collectable game, which may put off some people. For Knightmare chess, playing 1 card per turn with no cost associated with the more powerful cards, makes the game totally chaotic. There is no incentive in planning ahead.
Taure - I have no intention of making the game collectable. My idea would be to prepare the games in self-contained sets, or a main set with expansion sets as you mentioned. I personally do not really like collectable games, though I do like the way Magic is played.
metzgerism - Your game concept sounds very much like mine, except for the RPG part. I am a fan of FF tactics. Can you describe more about your RPG aspect of the game?